5 Reasons Why Accounts Payable Is the Unsung Hero of Your Financial Success in Business Central

Let’s be honest: Accounts Payable doesn’t always get the love it deserves. It’s not flashy, it’s not client-facing, and no one ever gives the AP team balloons for posting invoices on time. But after years working in accounting, most recently as a controller, I can confidently say: AP is the backbone of clean financial data.

If your books are a hot mess at month-end, chances are it didn’t start with the financial statements—it started way back in AP. I’ve seen it all: the mysterious invoice that landed in the wrong period, the rogue GL coding that tanked a report, and the forgotten PO that refused to die. 

It’s time to give AP the spotlight it deserves. Here are five reasons why the AP role is critical to both your organization’s financial health and to keeping Dynamics 365 Business Central running like a well-oiled machine.

1. GL Coding and Dimensions: Are your Financial Reports lying to you?

Think of invoice coding like laying the foundation of a house—if it’s off, everything built on top gets wobbly. Every invoice that comes through AP affects your general ledger and financial statements.

If coding is inconsistent or incorrect, those errors don’t politely stay in AP. They barge right into your P&L and balance sheet, creating havoc in reporting, budgeting, and analysis (as I will discuss later).

If your team gets it right the first time, you’re building your financials on a solid foundation—and you can trust your financial reports.

2. Posting Cutoffs: Eliminate the Detective Work

Nothing ruins a good month-end close like a surprise invoice dated next month—or worse, a January utility bill showing up in March’s books.

AP is the unsung hero here, ensuring expenses land in the right period. That includes:

• Backdating critical invoices (like insurance and utilities) to the month being closed
• Avoiding early postings—especially for inventory invoices, which should never beat the receipt date

When AP handles posting cutoffs accurately, it eliminates the need for investigative cleanup, ensuring a smooth close and reliable financials.

3. Keep That PO List Clean—Don’t let old POs haunt you

Business Central’s PO-to-Invoice workflow can be a beautiful thing—if your PO list isn’t cluttered with ghosts of purchases past.